There is considerable evidence that many dying elderly persons in institutions experience feelings of hopelessness and isolation in their terminal phase. This is often when we, as social work practitioners, experience difficulty in developing active interventions, such as supportive therapy, advocacy, and treatment planning. Ethical dilemmas may also arise around issues of appropriateness of treatment or the quality of life for the elderly person, requiring social work intervention. Through case illustrations of some work with dying elderly individuals in an institutional setting, the role of the social work practitioner will be discussed in respect to these interventions.
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